The Demon's Lover ✓

Lover - One

2011 © Sonia Bartlett ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Chapter 1

                                                                  Autumn 2012

Serlina Parisa padded softly through the steadily darkening woods, her white paws making steady but quick work of the all but invisible path. Behind her white striped body a large brown wolf and a black bear trailed closely. As the noiseless trio slipped through the forest, a silent communication passed between them.

"You smell anything yet, Tyler?" Serlina asked the wolf. Her senses as a white tiger were beyond acute, but the wolf's were still a hair better.

"Nothing yet. You getting anything Cam?" The black bear just shook his head, not a man of many words. For such a large creature, more than twice the size of the others, he moved with just as much stealth as his two smaller companions.

"You will soon. Keep an eye out, we're almost there," Serlina warned them superfluously. They both knew the route already, if they hadn't they would not be here. Serlina demanded the best from anyone she worked with, and she expected no less from herself. Perhaps that was why she was so popular.

Many leaders expected faultless performance, yet theirs was below par. Serlina was not one of them. She wanted no more from anyone she worked with than she herself gave. She was brutal, yet fair, and worked with no one but the best. Everyone aspired to work with her, for to do so was a great honor bestowed upon few.

The current pair she was working with were her usuals. Cam and Tyler were her partners whenever she was going into a situation where she really needed to depend on someone, where it was going to get dangerous. Tyler was her navigator. He could find anyone, anywhere given only scraps of information. Sometimes she wondered if he had the ability to talk to his surroundings... trees, grass, the wind... they all seemed to bend to his will. He was often her second in command when she was in groups for larger attacks. She needed someone who knew her and her strategies inside and out. Ty was that person.

Cam was a fairly new person in her life, whereas she'd known Ty since birth. She'd met him a few years ago when she'd been attacked after a fight. She had been exhausted and not paying attention as she'd tended to her wounds and as a result when the attacker came at her she'd been totally unprepared. Cam had saved her life, and since then he'd shown he was more than just the muscle that black bear shifters usually were. He had a sharp mind, and an even softer heart. Sometimes that heart led him astray, but he'd never once let her down, and that was a trait she considered invaluable.

"Noise southwest, about two and a half miles ahead. Sounds like eight maybe ten, but one is limping," Ty barked out in her mind. Lifting her nose she delicately sniffed the air.

"No blood. You don't think...?" Serlina trailed off.

"Frayne? It's a possibility," Ty admitted.

If it was it was bad news, she admitted. With a barely perceptible flick of her tail Serlina took off at into a flat out sprint. Wordlessly her companions followed tight on her heels. In a little under a minute they had crossed the two miles and were standing in a part of the forest that looked no different than the rest. In fact, it looked eerily similar to some place Serlina had been before.

She just didn't know where. She could smell them now. There were, indeed, eight of them. "Ty," she called mentally. "What's going on out there?"

"Three to the left, three to the right. Two Hemons directly in front," he replied. And closing fast Serlina added alertly.